(N.B. TL;DR at bottom). Watching The Globe’s 2012 production of Twelfth Night had me thinking not only of all-male dramatic productions theoretically, but also experientially. From the ages of 9-16, I was enrolled in a very traditional boys school in South London, founded by no other than Edward Alleyne in 1619. Of course, taking part in dramatic productions was required, and of course, there were (apart from mothers in the audience) no women as far as the eye could see. I made particularly notable appearances as a woman in both Sweeney Todd and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. At the time – particularly having come directly from a Quaker school in Brooklyn – the idea of men portraying women in a play was baffling more than anything else. My parents had explained to me how deeply rooted the practice was in British dramatic productions, but nonetheless, it made categorically no sense to me that women were (for whatever reason) seen as not up to the role. However, these questions now take on a new level of nuance for me. Tonight’s performance from The Globe, in addition to Britomart’s crossdressing in The Faerie Queene, has me now thinking more generally about the concept of gender fluidity in 16th and 17th century England. I know relatively little about the attitudes toward such things at the time, but I am curious to learn more, and to hopefully draw on my own experiences in a manner with slightly more substance than this post. TL;DR: I have been in all-male dramatic productions before.